Friday, October 24, 2008

Halloween at Disney is one of the very special times of year that the parks are decorated and there is a festive mood in the air. At Disneyland HalloweenTime has come to rival Christmas with the number of decorations and holiday overlays. On both coasts Halloween means separate ticket Halloween parties.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom and Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party at Disney's California Adventure are both available on select nights in September and October. For the first time this year I had the opportunity to attend both parties. We visited Walt Disney World in early September and attended the very first party on September 5th. Then just last Friday, October 17th we went to the Disneyland Resort and trick-or-treated our way around Disney's California Adventure. Both were very fun and a great way to spend an evening at a Disney resort, but there are some differences between them.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party sets the mood from the second you walk through the gates into the Magic Kingdom. The normal music is replaced with spooky music from the Haunted Mansion and the Nightmare Before Christmas. There is fog rising in front of the train station and you enter through the dark tunnel where you are handed your trick-or-treat bag. There are several special events that take place through the night and a special map to help you find all of the candy stations and times for the parade and fireworks.

The Boo to You Parade is up there as one of my very favorite parades at a Disney park. They start the parade with the Headless Horseman riding down Main Street. A few minutes later the parade follows. There were floats for the Country Bears, Mickey and Minnie, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many others. The two that stood above the other in my mind were the Haunted Mansion and the Villains floats. When the Haunted Mansion float is approaching the Caretaker and his dog walk past. The three Hitchhiking Ghosts are dancing on their float and there is a group of gravediggers that follow. The dance they perform with their shovels is fun and surprising if you aren't expecting it. You can't find more villains in one spot than in this parade. It ends with Goofy's Candy Company bringing candy to all of the parade viewers.

HalloWishes was very impressive and it is nice that they have a special fireworks show just for the Halloween party. They set off fireworks to Halloween music and end with a Halloween karaoke. The music from the end was not up to what I had expected but not a disappointment either. The Villains show on the Castle stage was fun and something different to see.

We spent the bulk of our time taking our kids from candy station to candy station. We left the party with more candy than anybody should eat in a year. We did not spend very much time on attractions since we could do that any other time and this night was all about the special events. We made an obvious exception for the Haunted Mansion. The storyteller out front was spooky and there were many people that stopped in the queue to watch her. She did a perfect job of setting the mood for the attraction.

Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party at Disney's California Adventure received a name change in the last year. Previous parties were known as Mickey's Halloween Treat.

You enter Disney's California Adventure and are greeted by a dance party in the Sunshine Plaza. There are projections of spider webs and witches all over the park. There were probably just as many candy stations in DCA as there were in the Magic Kingdom. The Sorcerer's Workshop in the Animation Building, the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and the trail that meanders through the Grizzly River Run were all loaded with candy.

Character Cavalcade 2006 - Photo by Me

The party was changed little from last year to the current year. A notable exception being the Character Cavalcade. While the Character Cavalcade is still not a true parade it is a huge improvement of the past year's "parade." In the past Mickey and Minnie were dragged around on a trailer with other characters following. This was done at the party was ending to try and get you out the gates. Now they had a float and signs announcing what you were watching. There were three or four songs and all of the characters got into the act. This was done an hour before the end of the party and gave you plenty of time to get in a few more rides, a little more candy, or dance with your favorite character.

Character Cavalcade 2008

It is very hard to compare the two parties since Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party is still very new. The parade and the fireworks were the biggest difference I saw. The lack of these will not deter me from attending Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party. There may be a simple explanation for the difference in the parties. You get what you pay for. Our tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party were over $50 per person. The Anaheim party was under $30. Wouldn't you expect to get less when you look at the difference? I would gladly hand another $20 to Disney if they gave us a full parade and special fireworks at the Halloween party.

I would attend both again and I will recommend both to friends. I look forward to Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party next year and with a little luck another trip to Walt Disney World and Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party.

MouseketeerGL--It's great seeing all these Disney-related words and photos in one place. It made me think of the WDW trip my wife and I enjoyed about six years ago.But my first trip to the original Disneyland was back in the summer of 1956! :-)